JEDDAH: In “Cleopatra,” British author Saara El-Arifi — who has Sudanese and Ghanaian heritage and spent her early years in Abu Dhabi before moving to the UK — sets out to reclaim the Egyptian monarch’s voice through a first-person narrative styled as a memoir.
“This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived,” Cleopatra declares to the reader early on in this historical novel, rejecting sensationalist accounts of her dramatic demise that have dominated mainstream perceptions of the last active pharaoh of Egypt.
The Roman chronicles that have shaped Cleopatra’s legacy were written by political victors who had a motive to justify the messy civil war that is portrayed in the novel.
While the Romans cast her as a foreign seductress or a witch who ensnared their generals into political alliances, Shakespeare immortalized Cleopatra as a tragic lover and Hollywood gave her Elizabeth Taylor’s kohl-rimmed eyes and little substance.
The unfortunate result is a fascinating historical figure whose existence in popular imagination has been prone to the limits of political propaganda and the male gaze for far too long.
In “Cleopatra,” published by HarperCollins’ UK imprint The Borough Press, El-Arifi carries the mighty task of centering the queen’s voice, ambitions, and charm, as well as interrogating the stories that have been spun about her, including romantic entanglements with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
While romance remains part of this feminist retelling, it is displaced from its traditional position as the heart of the matter. In this latest reimagining, Caesar and Antony, while genuinely devoted, are merely chapters in the sovereign’s life. Cleopatra is portrayed as a friend and scholar before she is a lover, and a mother defending her children before she is anyone’s tragic heroine.
The author artfully dwells on her girlhood at court and devotion to Egypt, her fluency in languages, likely including Arabic, her dedication to learning the science of healing, and her navigation of a family plagued by fratricidal rivalries.
“Cleopatra” also tackles the unglamorous labor of power: feeding a kingdom, safeguarding its currency, managing alliances and outmaneuvering siblings willing to kill for the throne.
It is worth noting that audiobook listeners will be in for a treat as actor Adjoa Andoh, who plays Lady Danbury in the hit Netflix series “Bridgerton,” delivers a dramatic and compelling narration to bring Cleopatra to life.
While the pacing sometimes falters under the weight of political intrigue, the novel’s ambitious scope may be the point: a queen who ruled an empire is finally able to tell her story in her own voice and on her own terms.
